Refrigerator



June 15 1926.

J. M. SHORT REFRIGERATOR Filed March 9 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEYSJ. M. SHORT REFRIGERATOR Filed March 9, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 /hw unuJune 15, 1926.

' INVENTOR ATTORNEYS way/NW2? o, A

Patented June 15, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT orrics.

JAMES MASELLUS SHORT, 01? NORTH LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS.

REFRIGERATOR.

Application filed larch 9, 1925. Serial Io. 14,160.

compartment of a refrigerator for a given time, and to provide arefrigerator having means for supporting articles of food so that sucharticles will be moved to position within the food compartment of therefrigerator when the door of such compartment is closed, and will beextended from the food compartment when the door of such compartment isopened so that the individual articles can he handled without moving theremaining articles and all articles supported by the device will beconveniently accessible and visible when the door of the foodcompartment has been opened.

A. further object of the invention is the provision of a refrigeratorhaving a food compartment adjacent to a refrigerant compartment andhaving also a service opening normally closed by a swinging door incombination with a secondary closure which carries means for, supportingarticles of food and is movable within the food compartment to positionto close the service opening I when the primary door for closing suchopening has been swung to open position.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thefollowing description, considered in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

Figure l is a perspective view of a refrigerator embodying the inventionwith the shelves for supporting articles of food -ex tended from thefood chamber and the primary door of the food chamber opened,

Figure 2 is a horizontal section through the refrigerator, one of theshelves being indicated in dash lines, and illustrating the motiontransmitting mechanism connecting the main swinging door of the foodchamber with the slidable secondary door so that the position of thelatter in the food chamber is changed as the primary door is swungbetween open and closed positions,

Figure 3 is a front elevation of the refrigerator with the primary doorof the foizld chamber swung to partly open position, an

Figure 4 is a section along the line H of F gure 2. T

In carrying out the invention, I provide a refri orator casing,generally indicated at 1, whic is shown as being substantiallyrectangular in cross sectional contour, and as being formed to providean 11 per chamber 2 for the reception of ice an a lower and relativelylarge chamber 3 for the reception.

of articles of food and the like. The casing 1 may be provided with anopening in its top which is normally closed by a door 4: and throughwhich ice ma be inserted in the ice chamber 2. The re rigerator casingalso is formed with an opening 5 in a vertical wall thereof for thepurpose of per-' initting access to the interior of the food chamber 3.The opening 5 is shown as being rectangular and as having therein acrosssect-ion slightly less than the area of the food compartment 3 intransverse vertical section. A door 6 for closing the openin 5 isattached to the refrigerator casing 1 hinges, as at 7 and is swingablehorizontal y.

The parts described so far are ordinary in construction and may varyconsiderably in details from thoseexhibited in the ac companying.drawings without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention aswill be understood from the following description. I

, Asecondary door and carrying member, indicated at 8, is adapted whenit is disposed edgewise, as shown, to fit rather closel in the foodcompartment 3, but to be cap-ab e of flatwise sliding movement from theback of the food compartment toward the plane of the doorway opening 5.The member 8 is supported for flatwise sliding movement on horizontalguides 9 which extend from the back of the food compartment 3 to thefront thereof and. engage with rabbets or other suitable cnt'outs 10 inthe'inarginal edge of the member 8. As best seen in Figure 4, a pair ofthese guides 9 may be provided at the upper end of the food chamber anda second pair of the guides=9 may be provided at the bottom of the foodchamber.. The sliding movement of the member 8 may be facilitated andstabilized by placing strips 11 of wear resisting material in grooves 12in the lower shaft 18.

faces of the upper guide members 9 and in like grooves 13 in the upperfaces of the bottom guides 9, the strips 11 having transverselyextending teeth 14: in their outer faces. A pair of peripherally toothedwheels l i on a horizontal shaft 15 which is sup ported by brackets 16at the rear of the upper portion of the member 8 are in rolling contactwith the toothed faces of the upper strips 11. A pair of similar toothedwheels 17 on a horizontal shaft 18 which is support ed by brackets 19 atthe rear of the lower portion of the member 8 are in rolling contactwith the toothed faces of the lower strips 11. The wheels 14 and 17 areconnected to move in unison by motion transmitting means which comprisesa vertical shaft 20 journaled in bearings 21 on the rear face of themember 8 and being provided at its upper end 1 with a beveled gear 22secured thereto and in mesh-with a bevel gear 23 which is secured on theshaft 15. A bevel gear 24 is secured in the lower end portion of theshaft 20 in mesh with a bevel gear 25 on the lower horizontal It will bemanifestthat the member 8 will remain in any position to which it hasbeen moved within the food compartment 3 because the engagement of theteeth on the wheels 14 and 17 with the teeth on the strips 11 will causesufficient friction to prevent accidental movement of the member 8, butwill not prevent the member 8 from being moved easily as a result of theexerclse of force.

The member 8 carries means for supporting articles of food or the like.Such article supporting means are shown as being shelves 26 made offoraminous material and having side guards as indicated at 27, suchshelves being secured at their rearward ends to the member 8 to extendforwardly of the latter substantially at right angles thereto. Eachshelf 26 is of such size that it will be completely disposed within thefood chamber 3 when the combined carrying and secondary door 8 has beenslid flatwise against the vertical stops 28 which are provided at therear of the food compartment. lVhen the memher 8 has been slid forwardin the food compartment to the position shown by the dotted lines inFigure 2, the shelves will be extended through the doorway opening 5 andthe marginal edge portions of the member 8 will abut the inner faces ofthe portions of the casing 1 which surround the doorway opening 5, so.that the space within the food chamber 3 will be closed against theingress of warm air from the space surrounding the refrigerator casingand escape of cool air from the food chamber 3 also be prevented. Atthis time, the position of the shelves 26 will permit complete andthorough inspection of all the articles on the shelves and will permitthe handling of any one of such articles.

The invention provides a motion transmitting means connecting thecarrying slide nember and the secondary door 8 with the .nain door 6 forthe food chamber so that opening of the main door will cause thesecondary door 8 to be slid forward in the food compartment to disposethe articles on the shelves 26 in readily accessible positions and tocause the doorway opening to be covered by the member 8. Such motiontransmitting means may comprise a toggle joint includw of the main door6 at the inner side of the,

latter.

From the foregoing description of the various parts of the device, theoperation thereof may be readily understood. When the main-door 6 isswung to closed position, the toggle joint which connects the maindoorwith the shelf carrying slide member and secondary door 8 will functionto move such member flatwise in the food chamber toward the plane of thedoor Way opening 5. As the swinging movement of the door 6 from closedposition to fully open position continues the shelves 26 will beprojected from the space within the food compartment 3 and articles canbe placed thereon or removed therefrom conveniently.

As hereinbefore stated, the member 8 covers the doorway opening 5 whenthe main door 6 has been swung to fully open position as shown by thedotted lines in Figure 2. Return movement of the door 6 from fully openposition to closed position will be accompanied by flatwise movementof'the member 8 rearwardly in the food compartment 3 so that the shelves26 will be withdrawn into the food compartment and completely housed inthe latter when the main door 6 is in closed position. It therefore willbe manifest that an economy in the use of ice is effected beyond thatordinarily required to maintain articles at a desirable temperature witha refrigerator of a given size for a given time, since-the doorwayopening of the food compartment will be closed almost instantly after ithas been opened by the opening of the main door and will remain closedwhile articles are belng placed on or removed from the shelves.Moreover, the supporting of the shelves from movement to and fromposition within thefood compartment insures desirable accessibility andvisibility of the respective articles which maybe supported on suchshelves. 7

Obviously, the invention is susceptible of embodiment in forms otherthan that which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and Itherefore consider as my own all such modifications and adaptationsthereof as fairly fall within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim 1. In a refrigerator having a lateral doorway opening and ahorizontally swingable door for closing said opening, a verticaledgewise secondary door slidable flatwise within said compartment inparallel relation to the plane of said doorway opening and adapted whenat the front of said compartment to cover said doorway opening,horizontal rails at the upper and lower ends of said compartment, saidrails extending from the back to the front of said compartment, andwheels at the upper and lower ends of said secondary door in rollingcontact with said rails, motion transmitting means con necting saidsecondary door with said swinging door, whereby opening of said swingingdoor will cause flatwise slidable movement of the secondary door in thecompartment and return swinging movement of said first door will movethe secondary door rearwardly in said compartment, and shaft and gearmeans connecting the wheels at the upper and lower ends of saidsecondary door to turn in unison. V

2. In a refrigerator having a lateral door- Way opening and ahorizontally swingable door for closing said opening, a verticaledgewise secondary door slidable fiatwise within said compartment inparallel relation to the plane of said doorway opening.

and adapted when at the front of said con1 partment to cover saiddoorway opening, horizontal rails at the upper and lower ends of saidcompartment, said rails extending from the back to the front of saidcompartment, and wheels at the upper and lower ends of said secondarydoor in rolling contact with said rails, and motion transmitting meansconnecting said secondary door with said swinging door, whereby openingof said swinging door will cause flatwise slidable movement of thesecondary door in the compartment and return swinging movement of saidfirst door will move the secondary door rearwardly in saidcompartment,each of said rails and the wheel which is associated therewith havingteeth in mesh with each other. JAMES MASELLUS SHORT.

